I always thought the shape of the can at the top was designed to allow the use of the EVIL six-pack rings. Do they still use those? I can’t remember the last time I saw one.
The beer in the wide-mouth bottle was Mickey’s Big Mouth. I don’t recall whether it was also available in cans.
Yes, they’re still in use. I bought a flat of Diet Coke (or Diet Pepsi, I can’t recall which) last week, and it had 4 individual 6-packs, each of which was held together using the plastic rings.
Is the whole thing about six-pack rings getting stuck over seagull’s heads at the dump an urban legend, or does it really happen. My tree-hugger friends convinced me in the late 70’s or early 80’s to cut the things apart with scissors so that there were no holes in them, but I never saw any hard, fast evidence that the problem actually existed.
That’s the way soft drink cans were in my area (Newfoundland) until I was about 11 or 12. Took me FOREVER to master the pull tabs. :o (I think that when they were introduced in the area, the tabs were too tight to the top of the can.)
IIRC the old style cans also had a much higher rate of “tab failure” where the ring would snap off, and you’d have to punch the damn thing open with something like a screwdriver or pen. It still happens but not nearly as often as in the olden days.
The tabs that popped clean off – people kept stepping on them and doing themselves an injury, too. I was one of them. 
I wouldn’t be surprised if the injury rate from dropped tabs played some small factor in the redesign…
Yes, as immortalized by Jimmy Buffet in Margaritaville :
I blew out my flip-flop,
Stepped on a pop-top,
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home.
A friend of mine used to do her homework in the can. In a household with 4 children, the parents, and 3 bedrooms, it was the only place where she could work without interruptions. The mother made a special “I’m studying, go to the other one” sign for the door.
Grrr… kick self
and now she sells tiles, bathtubs, etc. I swear 
Makes this joke with her old classmates about feeling “right at home” when she’s at work.
Sure, if it’s a wide-mouthed can, you’ll drink it faster and want more sooner!
Subtle brilliance at its finest! - Jinx